


We’re supposed to be the good guys

by UselessSidecharacter



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Conflict, F/F, I'm Bad At Titles, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Shadow Weaver being evil
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-10
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:27:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 12,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24647182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UselessSidecharacter/pseuds/UselessSidecharacter
Summary: Set towards the end of season four, basically the conflict between Adora and Bow, and Glimmer but focussed on wether or not they should allow Shadow weaver to mess around with an imprisoned Catra’s mind.Later chapters become a save the cat redux.
Relationships: Adora & Bow (She-Ra), Adora & Glimmer (She-Ra), Adora & Shadow Weaver | Light Spinner (She-Ra), Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Bow & Catra (She-Ra), Catra & Shadow Weaver | Light Spinner (She-Ra), Perfuma/Scorpia (She-Ra)
Comments: 85
Kudos: 307





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I think this is the first work I’ve done which I’ve planned to have multiple directly connected chapters so I hope this goes well.

“No.”

“Adora-“

“No, you can’t do this Glimmer; please, this isn’t how we do things!” Adora’s voice was wavering slightly, pleading.

“You don’t get to decide how we do things Adora! We went through all of this to capture Catra, we finally have her, if we do this we can end the war!”

“When it comes to  _ her- _ ” Adora almost spat, pointing with venom at Shadow Weaver who had stayed out of the argument so far, merely watching. “-I should at least be consulted. And just to be clear by ‘this’ you mean let a monster psychologically torture our prisoner and potentially destroy her mind and send her mad or kill her!?”

“Adora,” Glimmer said, in a lower but still urgent voice, “I know you don’t like her but we have to trust her!”

“Trust her? After everything she’s done to me? You want me to trust her?”

“Adora you’re not thinking rationally-“

“I’m not thinking rationally? You are taking the side of an evil sorceress!”

“At least I’m not taking Catra’s side!”

“I’m not taking her side! I’m just not going to let you torture her!”

“You won’t let me?” Glimmer's voice was angry now and Bow, the only other occupant of the war room groaned inwardly as the argument escalated; he’d given up trying to calm his two friends about the same time that the rest of the princesses had left in attempts to escape the confrontation.

“I am the queen, thanks to your friend, and I give the orders.” Glimmer’s face softened.

“Adora, this is the only way we can beat the Horde; we both know we won’t be able to hold Catra long, and when she gets back to the Fright Zone…” she paused for a moment before she finished, determinedly “We have to do this.”

Adora gripped her friend's arms and stared, beseechingly into her brown eyes.

“You were a prisoner of the horde and Shadow Weaver for a few days and it almost killed you, Catra has lived her whole life being tortured by her, every single moment of it, you can’t make her do it again, please.”

“But she deserves it… doesn’t she?” Glimmer was close to tears but she didn’t sound certain.

“All the bad things she’s done, Salineas, my Mom, The portal, Entrapta; all of it; why do we have to go easy on her after all she’s done?”

“Because we’re the good guys, remember?” For a moment there was a deep silence and Bow was preparing to stand up and engage his friends in a conflict resolution hug when Shadow Weaver moved forward, moving close to Glimmer and leaning down to her.

“Your majesty; Adora misses the point, we aren’t doing this to punish Catra, but to prevent the Horde from conquering the world, from conquering Bright Moon.”

“No, you’re wrong; we’ll find another way, a way which doesn’t involve being as bad as the Horde.”

“There’s no time Adora!” Glimmer sounded heartbroken. “Unless you have an idea right now which results in getting all of the Horde’s plans and strategy then… we have to do this.”

“Would you have done this to me?”

Glimmer was silent for a moment.

“What?”

“I could so easily have been where Catra is now; if I wasn’t She-ra and you had Shadow Weaver would you have let her mess up my mind?”

“That’s not fair!” Glimmer protested, but her heart wasn’t in it.

“Neither is this.” Adora said firmly.

“Queen Glimmer, Adora’s judgement is clearly clouded by her feelings for Catra.”

“What!? No! I just don’t want you anywhere near her, or anyone to be honest.”

Shadow Weaver turned to Adora, gliding forward, forcing the girl to take a step back, releasing Glimmer’s arms.

“Adora you have always been exceptional at many things but lying is not one of them, especially not to me. It is clear you still harbour the same hindering feelings for Catra as you always have, why else would you object to doing something which could save the world from the Horde, while you may not be strong enough to respect my methods why should we not use them to save Etheria?”

“Because I’ve been on the receiving end of your ’Methods’.” Adora answered.

Ignoring her the Sorceress continued.

“You must’ve seen that what I say is the truth Your Majesty? How many times has She-ra, the most powerful entity on Etheria, been bested by one Horde officer? How many times has she let her escape or been drawn into traps set by her? You must see how odd this is? How could Catra keep winning unless Adora was holding back? How could Catra be allowed to open the portal and almost destroy the world unless…”

“Unless Adora cared for her…” Glimmer finished quietly, looking at the ground.

“She is clearly manipulating you, how can you not see that, that’s what she does!”

“How soon can you begin your work Shadow Weaver?”

“I will need an hour or so your majesty.”

“Ok.”

“I can’t let you do this Glimmer.” Adora said, her face heartbroken but furious and determined.

“You would fight against the rebellion?” Glimmer said, looking up again her jaw set and unyielding.

“This isn’t the rebellion I joined! The rebellion was supposed to be better than the Horde, now I have to watch Shadow Weaver torture Catra? How is it any different?”

“Because Catra chose this! She’s not a kid Adora! Everything she has done has made the world worse! And if we don’t do this then we might as well give up, because nothing we’ve done mattered!”

“I can’t be on the same side as people who torture prisoners!”

“Then leave!” Glimmer yelled, the silence which followed was deafening, the queen briefly displaying shock at her own words before hardening her expression.

Adora’s face was aghast, her mouth opened slightly but she too recovered.

“Fine.” Adora said in a low, angry voice before turning to the doors.

“Adora wait!” Bow stood up from his chair, what the hell had just happened?

“Guards, escort Adora to her room and keep her there until morning; then she is allowed to go where she wishes.”

Adora seemed ready to grab the sword off her back but she made eye contact with Bow who shook his head desperately, instead she raised her head and turned and walked through the doors, two guards following her.

“Glimmer...?”

“Are you going to try and stop me?” Glimmer said, not looking at him.

Bow was silent for a second.

“No, but I don’t support this.” He said, walking to the door.

“I assume I can visit Adora without being arrested?”

Glimmer nodded, holding back a sob.

“You did the right thing,” Shadow Weaver began as soon as the room was empty, ”sometimes rulers have to make controversial decisions, Adora will understand if we let her sleep on it.”

Glimmer didn’t answer, still staring at the door.

“Your mother would be proud, Glimmer. Now I must go and prepare.”

When Shadow Weaver left the hall she closed the door behind her, as soon as she did Glimmer collapsed to the ground in tears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed that, not sure when the next chapter will be. Any feedback, criticisms or corrections are appreciated a lot.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, this would’ve made more sense to post as the first chapter but here we are. My original plan had very little Catradora interaction so I wanted a little more so I did this.

A few hours earlier

Adora looked down at Catra’s body as her former friend started to move, recovering from Scorpia’s venom.

“Hey Adora.” She said with a yawn, opening one eye and surveying the princesses, with Scorpia noticeably absent as she hadn’t felt ready to face Catra yet, and Bow who looked back at her with their best tough faces, the Force captain closed her eye and laid back down on the floor of the spare room.

No one spoke, they had kinda hoped for a reaction which was more… reactive.

After a few moments of silence Glimmer affected her most authoritative voice and spoke.

“Force Captain Catra you are going to-“ she was cut off by Catra.

“Sparkles,” She said in an odd, unCatralike voice, “you actually managed to grade me back to Brightmoon this time… I’m,” here her voice caught slightly.

“I’m so proud of you Sparkles, you’ve come so far.” She then immediately broke into a cackle which affected Adora a lot more than she wanted to; she focussed her mind away from all the times she’d heard that laugh in a better context and onto the smirking enemy prisoner who was grinning up at them from the floor, reclining like it was the most comfortable thing in the world.

Enemy. Prisoner.

“You’re going to tell us what the horde is planning, and how we can stop it.” Adora somehow managed to keep her voice level.

“Hmmmm. Tempting,” Catra made a pained face, “ but you see; I don’t want to… so you see my dilemma?”

“Stop delaying Horde scum!” Frosta summoned her Ice fists as she shouted.

“Oh my god you’re even more adorable up close!” Catra cooed and Frosta looked like she was about to smash the magic barrier when Perfuma put a hand on her shoulder.

“How about we come up with some sort of deal? What do you want, Catra?”

Catra’s eyes looked up at them all with amusement, her gaze landed on Adora for what was a second but what felt like an eternity to the blonde.

“Ok,” Catra said in mock consideration after pulling her gaze away from Adora, “if you all surrender to the Horde right now, give up your lands and pledge allegiance to Hordak; then I’ll tell you how we planned on beating you if you didn’t surrender, sound good?”

“Urgh, can’t you just do that handwavey-magic rune spell truth thingy?” Mermista said with crossed arms.

“How about it Catra? I’ll give you one chance to tell us everything before I use a truth spell to get the information.” Glimmer said, drawing the rune as she spoke.

“Sure. Go ahead.” Catra said, inspecting her claws nonchalantly.

“I’m serious.”

“I know.” Catra’s voice was innocent but everyone in the room simultaneously narrowed their eyes.

“Fine.” Glimmer said, with a confidence that she didn’t feel, pushing the rune towards the reclined prisoner. Immediately Catra started to convulse and thrash like she was resisting an invisible pull.

“No! No! I won’t! ...can’t make me! ...Sparkles… I’m… I'm not actually proud of you.”

Catra’s body immediately returned to its relaxed position and her laugh rang out again.

“What happened Glimmer?” Bow said quietly, all of them looking at the queen and Catra with confused faces.

“I… I don’t know, I must’ve done the spell wrong.” Glimmer said, looking at her hands in confusion; she’d mastered this spell, it should’ve worked.

“No, it’s not your fault Sparkles,” Catra crowed, “it’s just when you spend your whole life being tortured by magic it kinda loses its effect.”

“But when Adora was being mind warped by Shadow Weaver, that was working!” Bow protested.

“Yeah, well Sparkles, you’re no Shadow Weaver.” Catra shuddered theatrically.

“I’ve never given a princess a compliment before, it feels weird.”

“Well then it’s a good thing I’ve pledged my allegiance to the rebellion isn’t it?” Shadow Weaver stepped out of the shadows further back from Catra’s cage.

“What is she doing here?” A note of fear entered into Catra‘s voice, although not noticeable to anyone apart from Adora, and her body tensed.

“What do you suggest doing Shadow Weaver?”

“’What do you suggest?’ When did she become your adviser?” Catra spat.

“We don’t like it either.” Perfuma sighed, before hardening her face. “I mean, none of your business prisoner!”

“What she means is: we don’t like either of you!” Frosta said emphatically.

“But only one of you destroyed one of our kingdoms so y’know.” Mermista added.

“So you listen to the person who failed at defeating any of you? No wonder we’re beating you.”

“I suggest,” Shadow Weavers' icy voice cut over the others, “that I enter into Catra’s mind much like I attempted to do with Adora and pull the necessary information out.”

“What? No way! Nope, not happening.” Adora spoke for the first time in a while; her hatred of Shadow Weaver overshadowing her attempts to keep control over her emotions.

Glimmer was silent for a moment.

“What do you need?”

“Ummm, I know we don’t like Catra but is this really needed? It just seems a bit extreme.” Perfuma spoke up quietly

“Also, isn’t this the kind of thing we should at least vote on or whatever?”

“We should at least talk about it first.” Bow agreed.

“What’s there to talk about? We’re in no way doing this!” Adora hadn’t realised she’d feel this strongly about how the rebellion treated Catra; it felt a lot different staring down at her tense body as she began pressing her claws into her arm than it did when seeing her in a fight or when she was her prisoner.

“And we don’t need magic to make her talk. I’ll make her talk.” Frosta said, punching an ice fist into an ice palm.”

“Listen guys, can we talk about this away from the prisoner?” Glimmer had said exasperatedly.

“Fine, lets go.”

They’d all filed out of the room, Adora making sure that Shadow Weaver left in front of her.

She’d turned around, looking at Catra for a second; she looked terrified. It was somehow worse than the times she’d seen her trying to kill her.

“I won’t let her hurt you.” Adora wasn’t sure why she said it, she shouldn’t be trying to comfort the prisoner. Catra looked from her mismatched eyes into Adora’s blue ones, a mix of fear and hope in them.

“I promise.” 

For a moment they looked at each other then it was over and Catra gave a grunt, turning her back to the door and lying down on the ground.

Adora felt the urge to speak again but shook her head and walked after the rest of the group.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the comments and kudos on the first chapter, they really meant a lot; I should have the next chapter up in a couple of days.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed that chapter, feedback is appreciated.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is just a short chapter as I decided on splitting this one and the next one.
> 
> But I hope you enjoy anyway!

Bow would have only been half a minute behind Adora but when he entered her room, passing the looming guards, it was already a complete mess, like his friend had fought one of those super tank bots.

He didn’t have long to take in the room as he had to quickly duck as Adora hurled her bed at the wall behind him, smashing it on the doorframe.

“Oh no! I’m so sorry Bow! I didn’t see you there!” She babbled as she pulled him up from the ground.

As the archer straightened up he looked around him, seeing the smashed chairs and dressers, strewn papers and books, and Adora’s messed up and disheveled hair,  _ seriously it was thirty seconds at most. _

“Sooooo,” Bow began, missing his signature upbeat tone, “how’s it going.” 

Adora sagged and held her left arm in her right hand. “I don’t know.” 

Looking up into her friend’s eyes Adora opened her mouth to speak but couldn’t make words so just shook her head and sighed.

“I don’t know.”

Bow wrapped her in a hug which she immediately reciprocated, sinking into his arms. They stood there for a few moments before Bow pulled away and looked into Adora’s face, seeing tears.

“It’s just… I know Catra is evil and I’ve accepted that now, there’s never going to be a time when we’re close again… but…” she took a steadying breath.

“Catra was tortured by Shadow Weaver for years, she suffered so much even though she was just a kid and I always did everything I could to stop it… which never really helped to be honest… but I can’t… I can’t just let it happen now just because we’re on different sides.” Adora slumped to the ground, trying to verbalise her emotions had drained her.

“I get it,” Bow followed her down, placing an arm around her shoulders and pulling her head into his shoulder, “it feels wrong to me as well even though I know everything she’s done… we have to be better than that don’t we?”

“Yep,” Adora answered, “that's the reason.”  _ Yep, morality; that’s it, not super complex emotions I don’t want to get into right now cause we’re in the middle of a war and whenever I think about my … feelings I smash everything. _

“I don’t like how we’re letting Shadow Weaver be so important… I’m really worried about Glimmer, she would never have let this happen before she started learning magic from Weaver.”

“She’s just doing what she thinks is right.” Adora tried to reason but the words tasted false in her mouth; she was sick of trying to justify people’s behaviour, she’d done enough of that for Catra… at least before she opened the portal.

“Well we can’t let her do it.” Bow said resolutely.

Adora pulled away from him and looked at him in confusion. “What?”

“Look I know we don’t like Catra but… I dislike Shadow Weaver more… everything Catra‘s done has always been from some emotion, usually anger but Shadow Weaver seems emotionless, she doesn’t seem like she regrets hurting you as a child or anyone she’s hurt over the years and… and I don’t want to let her hurt anyone else… even Catra.”

“Thank you” Adora hoped Bow understood how much she meant those words even if he didn’t understand how she felt about Catra, hell even she didn’t know how she felt about Catra.

“But it’s pointless.” She sighed, falling onto her back with despair.

”We only have an hour or so to try and talk Glimmer out of it and she’s not gonna cool off in that amount of time, and it’s not like we can stop them getting into Catra’s room.”

“No,” Bow agreed, but some weird tone in his voice made Adora look up from the ground, “but what if she wasn’t in the room?”

“Are you suggesting…” Adora whispered, like someone might hear.

“I’m suggesting we… help Catra escape.” Bow grimaced. “That did not feel good to say.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, as always any comments or feedback is appreciated a crazy amount.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, this right here is why I shouldnt he allowed to write stuff; this chapter, the previous chapter and the next two chapters we’re all supposed to be part of the same, fairly short chapter. But noooooo. I’ve got to go and do four chapters.
> 
> Honestly I just couldn’t resist a bit of Scorfuma, sue me.
> 
> I have the next chapter written so I might put it up tomorrow or the day after.

“No, no, Perfuma this is bad! This is really really bad! Oh Gosh, I stung Catra, that’s the only reason she’s here and the only reason that she’s gonna have Shadow Weaver mess around with her head! This is all my fault! I never should’ve left the Fright Zone, if I hadn’t left then-“ Perfuma had left the meeting discussing Catra when Adora’s and Glimmers argument had escalated and had gone to Scorpia’s room, figuring she would want to know what was happening.

“Scorpia,” Perfuma cut into her spiral in a gentle but firm voice, taking one of her pincers into her hands, “I need you to breathe ok?”

Scorpia nodded and took a deep breath, holding it for a few seconds before blowing out like Perfuma had shown her.

“Ok, Firstly: this is not your fault.”

“But if I-“ Scorpia started, looking away into a corner of the room which she supposed was still technically a prison cell although there hadn’t been guards for a while now.

“Hey,” Perfuma said gently, putting her hand on Scorpia’s cheek and moving her face back to look at hers which made the taller woman blush slightly, “it’s not your fault ok? None of us knew what Glimmer was going to do, it’s so unlike her; she usually has such loving energy.”

Scorpia nodded as Perfuma continued, nervously avoiding eye contact with the flower princess but always feeling the pull of her dark eyes.

“And you did the right thing leaving the Fright Zone, we want to be there as much as possible for our friends and other people but our needs are just as important as theirs… a toxic friend is still toxic even if they have a reason for being like that; and we can’t be expected to accept the way they treat us indefinitely.”

Scorpia tried looking away again and Perfuma moved her other hand up to her face to hold it in both hands.

“You gave Catra so many chances to let you help her, you were there with her for years trying to be a good friend, she didn’t let you and that’s on her. You couldn’t have done anything more.”

Scorpia sagged slightly and Perfuma moved her hands down to her shoulders.

“I know. You’re right… it’s just that I had… y’know.”

“Feelings for Catra.” Perfuma finished like it was natural.

“Yeah… I don’t know if they were real or whatever… it was just that she never treated me differently because of my pincers and tail… but like now; after coming to Bright Moon that’s just how everyone is automatically. But I still feel bad about this.”

“Yeah… so do I.” Perfuma said quietly.

“Do you think Adora will be able to convince Glimmer?”

“I don’t know, Glimmer’s different now… I thought that it was because of Angella y’know. But now, Shadow Weaver just seems very good at manipulating people.”

“Yeah, when me and Catra went out to the crimson waste for the first time she actually seemed happy,” Scorpia gave an empty sort of laugh before continuing, “I thought she might actually decide to leave the Horde, I asked her to stay and rule the waste with me; it was the closest I came to actually telling her… and she seemed like she might actually let herself be happy for once then I guess Adora said something about Shadow Weaver going to Bright Moon and that’s when she decided to open the portal. I think that was the final thing y’know? After that I never saw the happy Catra who’d always been there behind all the toughness… she changed after that.”

“So you don’t still have y’know feelings for her?”

“No, I don’t think so; I guess I thought that someone tolerating me would be the best I could get but since coming here I guess… I deserve someone who’s kind to me don’t I?” Scorpia could feel her face burning slightly.

“Yeah, you do; you deserve a lot Scorpia, and that includes someone who makes you happy” Perfuma looked up at Scorpia and for a few moments they stood like that before the loaded silence was broken by heavy feet outside, both the princesses ran to the door; eager for any news about Catra.

When they opened the door they were just in time to see Adora being escorted by two guards down the corridor towards her room, they exchanged confused looks and a few moments later Bow raced around a corner, clearly very preoccupied with something, not seeming to notice himself being watched until Perfuma stepped forwards and spoke.

“Bow what’s going on?”

“Glimmer’s arrested Adora and she’s going ahead with Shadow Weavers plan.”

“What!? She can’t do that, can she Bow? Bow?” Bow pushed passed them, following Adora.

“She can't, can she? Weren’t you supposed to vote or something?” Scorpia could feel herself starting to freak out again until Perfuma put her hands on her arms and gently pulled her into the room again, closing the door behind them.

“We were supposed to vote but… she is Glimmer's prisoner I guess and we are all guests of Bright Moon, honestly there’s not much we can do to stop her doing this if she wants.”

“So you’re just going to let her torture her?”

“That’s not what I said, I just don’t think we can convince her to stop, so we might need to get a little… creative.”

“You would do that?”

“Yeah… I don’t think that anyone you liked could be fully bad, your heart’s too good! And if there is some good in Catra then we can’t let Shadow Weaver do this to her.”

“Thank you.” Scorpia said, there was a brief silence as they looked at each other in the eyes before Scorpia broke the silence.

“Do… Do you have a plan?l

“Nope! But I know someone who might!”

A few seconds later a large vine was swinging the two of them around the outside of Bright Moon, Scorpia trying her best not to look down. It put them down gracefully on Adora’s balcony, they both walked into the trashed room rather tentatively before seeing Adora and Bow kneeling next to a map with pieces on it.

As soon as they noticed the two newcomers Bow and Adora left to their feet in surprise.

“We… we want to help” Perfuma said, holding up her hands.

“Yeah, we can’t let Glimmer do this, even if Catra has been a bad person.

Adora and Bow exchanged glances.

“Do you happen to have Perfuma and Scorpia pieces?”

“Yep.” Bow responded holding up a leather bag.

“Then you’re in.”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed that chapters; honestly the amount of comments and kudos on this work have meant the world to me, thank you all so much!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so again; this was supposed to be one part of a single chapter so it might not work entirely, and I might decide to rewrite it at some point; but here it is.

“Oh my goodness, is that a tiny Scorpia? Oh, she’s so cute, she’s got tiny little pincers and everything!” Scorpia rushed forwards and picked up the tiny figurine from the map of Bright Moon which had been laid out on the ground.

“Wait, why do you have a tiny Scorpia?” 

“Well originally it was just a tiny bestfriend squad but then the other princesses felt left out so I made them ones.”

“I was a Venus fly trap for a while,” Perfuma cut in excitedly, “it ate tiny Bow.”

“Then I thought that I might as well make some models for the… errr… bad guys?” Bow finished awkwardly, gesturing to a pile of robots and Horde soldiers.

“Which reminds me,” He said, picking out a model of Catra which looked very different to the Catra who Scorpia knew and placed it down on the map.

“Ok, here’s what me and Bow have so far.” Adora said, the room was silent for a moment before Perfuma broke it.

“Well?”

“Well what?

“Well what’s the plan so far?”

“Oh, no, sorry; this is what we have: the map and the models.”

“So no plan?” Scorpia said, deflating slightly.

“Well since Bow said charging through all the guards in Bright Moon and busting down the door wasn’t allowed then no, we have no plan.”

Adora looked at her friend’s worried expressions.

“Look it’s been stressful Ok? And we still have plenty of time!”

Just then they all heard Glimmer’s voice talking to the guards outside and quick as a flash Bow shoved the map and models into a corner and gestured at Perfuma and Scorpia to hide.

Glimmer took a steadying breath and nodded to one of the guards who stood watch outside of Adora’s room, they smartly stepped apart and allowed her to open the door; she could’ve teleported in like she did all the time but that felt… wrong somehow after their last interaction.

As she reached for the door handle the queen noticed that her hands were still shaking like they had been since she broke down in the war room, but she ignored it and pushed, in the brief moment in between pushing and the door swinging fully open there was a scuffling sound like people moving around inside the room, but when she stepped in Glimmer only saw Adora and Bow sat on the floor amidst the wreckage of what had been Adora’s bedroom playing at some card game, half of the ones Adora held back to front but that wasn’t too suspicious given that she’d never really got how card games worked.

“Glimmer!?” Adora looked up, a mixture of shock, hope and, heartbreakingly, hurt. Bow also looked up but didn’t speak, and quickly returned his attention to his cards, Adora’s expression soon morphed into poorly feigned indifference, “What… what’re you doing here?” 

Remembering Shadow Weaver’s words about controversial decisions Glimmer straightened up and assumed her most regal tone.

“I’m not here to apologise or to tell you that I’ve reconsidered.”

There was a seconds silence before Bow spoke in a slightly bemused voice,

“Then why are you here?”

To tell the truth Glimmer wasn’t sure, and when she wasn’t sure about something she always inevitably sought out her friend's company, but she couldn’t admit that; couldn’t let them know she was having second thoughts about this whole thing with Catra, her mother would never admit a such a thing. The Queen had to be certain in what she did.

“To inform you that food shall be brought to you shortly.”

“You had to come here to tell us that yourself?” Bow said skeptically, “Are you sure that there’s no other reason?”

Already Glimmer felt herself on the verge of tears.

“Please… I need you to… to understand, we have to do this!”

“Who’s we?” Adora said, looking back at her cards and seeming to notice the mismatched nature of them for the first time, angrily switching the back to front ones the right way around.

“If you recall I was fairly against this… it’s why I’m in prison.”

“Adora-“

“And I’m against it as well… this isn’t right Glimmer.”

“What do you want me to do Bow?” Glimmer was all but pleading, this wasn’t really going to plan.

“Just give in to the Horde and let them win?”

Bow didn’t answer, didn’t even look back at her. Glimmer was torn between grabbing his hands and pleading, begging him to understand, and screaming her annoyance at him. How could he not understand?

“Well it seems,” Adora cut across her thoughts, “that a good way to avoid defeat would be to ignore the person who’s failed at everything she’s ever done.”

“You sound like Catra.” Glimmer regretted this retort immediately when Adora’s intensely blue eyes met hers with a look of anguish.

“If you’re going to destroy her mind without a second thought then you don’t get to use her name in an argument.”

She turned back to her cards, “Glimmer just go… please?”

Glimmer opened her mouth but no words came out, she turned to her the other occupant of the room, her oldest, and for a longtime only friend.

“Bow?” He didn’t answer.

Suddenly Glimmer felt anger grow inside her, she should leave now before it got the better of her, but she didn’t.

“Shadow Weaver’s right; your feelings about Catra are making you crazy.”

“And yours aren’t?” Adora snapped, her face turned up again; If Glimmer we’re calmer she might’ve seen tears forming in her friends eyes.

“What?”

“We both know if Catra hadn’t killed Angella you wouldn’t be doing this… no matter how useful it might be.”

The anger inside her had fanned itself into an inferno of rage which she was barely managing to contain; she turned and strode back through the door, as it was closing behind her she shot one more parting remark.

“You killed Angella Adora.”

The silence was overwhelming for a few seconds but then it was broken by Scorpia bursting out from a pile of furniture rubble and sweeping Adora into a huge hug.

“Oh my Gosh! Adora, I am so sorry! She had no right to talk to you like that, you are in no way responsible for what happened to Angella. And we’re gonna fix this, I promise!”

Adora, after a few shocked seconds returned Scorpia’s hug wholeheartedly and allowed herself to cry into her large shoulder, feeling her anger at Glimmer lessen slightly. What could she say? Scorpia gave great hugs.

After a few moments Perfuma, having emerged from the same pile of broken tables and chairs tapped Scorpia on the other shoulder to get her attention.

“Perhaps we should get back to planning? We don’t have much time.” Her voice was still her signature sweet tone but with a hint of anxiety at the edges.

“Right, yeah, of course!” Scorpia said, gently putting Adora back to the ground.

Adora cuffed away her tears before smiling at the two princesses.

“I’m really glad that you guys are here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, I hoped you enjoyed, this is the most writing. I’ve done in forever; thanks so much for the comments and kudos as they’ve really had me inspired to write this.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m honestly not too happy with this chapter but I can’t deal with trying to redo it right now so I’m just putting it up as it is.

The look which Catra gave her when the door opened made Glimmer check her step for a moment before she continued into the room with the kitchen servant pushing a covered food cart, for a brief moment her heterochromic eyes flashed with what the Queen might have thought was terror had it come from anyone other than Catra; but what almost made her stop was the even more momentary look of something which almost looked like hope.

“Hey Sparkles.” Catra called up from the floor, her face returning to its customary sneer so quickly that Glimmer doubted she had seen anything else on the prisoners face.

“Catra, Shadow Weaver will be ready soon… why don’t you just tell us what we want to know now?” At hearing Shadow Weaver’s name Catra’s face twitched slightly.

“Let’s say I do tell you anything you want to know… would you believe me? Would you believe me for long before you start thinking about having your friend mess with my hand anyway?”

“Yes, I would I don’t want-“

“Yes you do Sparkles.” Catra’s voice was hard. Any time she’d spoken to Glimmer there had been some playful tone in her voice, either that or it had been filled with rage, it was never like this.

“I saw you when Shadow Weaver volunteered her ‘methods’ everyone else seemed surprised, even fish girl didn’t look like she loved the idea and she’s lost more than the rest of you… but you, you didn’t even bat an eyelid Sparkles. I think you wanted to do this all along you just didn’t want to suggest it, I think you want to have Shadow Weaver torture me.” As Catra spoke she’d risen to her feet and approached the side of the magical prison cell, glaring at Glimmers eyes.

Feeling her mouth dry, Glimmer licked her lips before speaking, “Why would I want this?”

Catra let out that laugh which made Glimmers hair’s stand on edge. “Because you’re just like me Sparkles.”

“I am  _ nothing  _ like you Catra.” Glimmer moved closer to the magical barrier, heart pounding with anger, she jumped slightly when Catra’s clawed hand slammed against the purple wall.

“Oh I beg to differ with your majesty: an angry girl trying to prove something, who’s friends are abandoning her, who keeps losing no matter how many times she wins?”

“I’m not like you.” Glimmer repeated, but with less conviction than last time.

“No,” Catra conceded, turning away from the Queen and sitting again, “You’re not as good yet.” 

“And I never let Shadow Weaver torture someone.” She added.

“No… no, I’m not like you! My friends haven’t abandoned me!”

“Then where are Adora and Arrow boy?”

“They’re just being stupid, they’ll get over it!”

“Whatever you say princess.” Catra said, disinterestedly inspecting her claws.

Glimmer was silent for a few moments, unsure why she wanted to ask but she did anyway.

“Ok then, if I am trying to prove myself why am I doing this?” She gestured at the magical container.

“Well I could say it’s to prove you can be tough but it’s probably something personal; so what I ran a tank over your favourite tree? I burned the only village that you could get some type of cookie?”

“You killed my mother.” Glimmer was trying very hard to keep her voice under control.

“Doesn’t ring a bell, I’d remember killing a seven foot tall woman with wings.”

“She stayed behind to close the portal which you opened! She had to give her life because of your stupidity! You took everything from me!”

Catra was silent, her back still to Glimmer, seemingly ignoring her. In frustration the Queen turned to leave before she was stopped and turned back by Catra’s manic laugh.

“ _ I  _ took everything from  _ you?” _

“What’s so funny!?”

“Oh nothing, it’s just when you actually have nothing it’s kind of amusing when a kid who grew up and lives in a palace with armies of servants and all the food she could want and friends, who according to you haven’t abandoned you yet, says that they lost everything because one bad thing happened to them.”

“One bad thi-?”

“You know what actually having nothing is like Sparkles? It’s when you get hurt any time  _ anything  _ goes wrong for your whole childhood, the Horde loses a battle a hundred miles away? Catra’s fault. Adora trips in practice? Catra was distracting her. Kyle floods the barracks? Catra was intimidating him. Catra does the best in something? Must be because she sabotaged everyone else. Everything’s going fine? Catra must be planning something!” Catra’s words had grown louder and louder, mingling with her laughter till it rang through the room.

“Having nothing is being forced to go through all of that then having the one person you thought was there with you swan off for people she’d only known for a few hours.”

“Adora didn’t abandon you!” Glimmer’s anger had been building throughout the whole conversation, Catra was excellent at bushing buttons, and she could no longer keep a lid on it.

“No matter how much evil you do, no matter how… cruel you are, she still, for some idiotic reason, cares about you somehow! You almost destroyed the world and she is still taking your side over mine! If you want to tear everything up because Shadow Weaver was horrible to you or whatever then fine, but don’t pretend that this isn’t on you; Scorpia, Entrapta even Adora have given you so many opportunities to accept help, it’s on you that you didn’t accept it, and none of them abandoned you; you pushed them away!”

Catra’s body was still being moved by laughs albeit smaller than previously and she barely seemed to be paying attention to the Queen who almost screamed in frustration before moving the food cart close to the cage and pushing a tray through the barrier, not looking down at the prisoner.

“Shadow Weaver will be here soon.” She said bitterly as she walked out of the room, the doors slamming closed behind her.

On the floor Catra wiped at the tears which had covered her face as her sobs ,which her laughs had morphed into about halfway through her rant, subsided and she was left alone in the darkening room.

———————-

She must’ve slept, at least for a bit because she didn’t notice anyone enter the room until they awkwardly cleared her throat making her jump in fright.

Turning in her confined area Catra came face to face with a kneeling Scorpia, her face filled with worry and apprehension, standing behind her Catra could see arrow boy.

“Hey, Wildcat.” Scorpia tried a weak smile.

“Scorpia?” Catra knew that she should’ve hated how fragile her voice sounded but at that moment she felt too empty to care.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed; again all the feedback and comments have really meant a lot to me, I just like to keep saying that.
> 
> The last chapter might be awhile mainly because I’m still not entirely sure how it’s gonna go.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The heist begins.
> 
> Never written a heist/prison break before, pretty fun, not sure it’s good but I enjoyed writing it.
> 
> There’s also a lot of emotion cause of course there is what did you expect?

“We’re getting you out of here.” Scorpia said, she was smiling but behind her expression was poorly concealed hurt.

Catra allowed herself a few moments of showing her vulnerability on her face, she felt an apology, words she wished she said to her friend, on the tip of her tongue, before she threw up her walls again, forcing her face into its customary cocky sneer.

“Got bored with your new friends already?” Catra remarked pointedly.

“Catra…” and now the hurt was not concealed at all, just plastered all over her face as she looked down at her former friend, still hugging herself and leaning against the purple barrier.

“And you, arrow boy,” Catra cut off whatever Scorpia was planning on saying next, she couldn’t let herself acknowledge the princess, it’d mean acknowledging the very valid reasons she had to hate her, “what’s making you go against Queen Sparkles?”

Bow glared back at her over Scorpia’s large shoulder but didn’t rise to her provocation.

“Didn’t have the stomach for Shadow Weaver’s plan?” When she was again met with no response, Scorpia staring into a corner of the room at something and Bow eyeing the door, Catra shrugged and stood, acting like her legs weren’t shaking slightly from being scared for such a long period of time.

“Well, lets get on with it then.”

“Trust me, I want to get this over with but Adora insisted we wait five minutes.” Bow didn’t look at her while talking, something which annoyed Catra no end.

“Adora? You mean Adora came up with this plan? Well I might as well take a nap and be well rested for Shadow Weaver because her plans suck, what is it; try to run past the guards and hope for the best?”

“No! Well, kind of.” 

“Oh goody, I feel saved already.” Despite her comments Catra remained standing, and she felt herself calm slightly.  _ People like Adora, she probably has a lot of people helping. That’s the reason she felt able to breathe properly for the first time since seeing Shadow Weaver. Nothing else. _

Catra’s mind wandered to when she’d woken up and Adora’s last remark before she’d left to follow the other princesses. _ “I promise.” _

Straightening up Scorpia’s eyes were still trained on the same corner of the room, seemingly deep in thought, Catra was about to turn and look when Scorpia spoke again.

“Catra, you were a very toxic friend, I tried so hard to make you happy and help you and you treated me like crap.”

Catra felt Scorpia’s words sting, knowing there was a lot of truth to them, but only rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, So you said just before you abandoned me to side with the rebellion.”

“I didn’t-“

“Anyway now is not the time to talk about this.”

“Actually, if the guards don’t hear some talking then they might think we’re doing something.”

“Are we not doing something?”

“No… oh wait! Yes!” Bow smacked his forehead and walked around to where the cart of food was before pushing it against the purple barrier, his face breaking into a grin when it passed through; only barely fitting inside.

“Ok, now we’re not doing anything; and we don’t want them thinking that we are doing something because that’ll ruin the part of the plan when we do do something.”

“So we have to talk? How about how stupid your girlfriend is.”

“Glimmer isn’t stupid! And she’s not my girlfriend!”

Catra just laughed slightly, she could deal with people being angry at her with far more ease than she could deal with Scorpia.

“Listen Catra,” Bow said after taking a deep breath, “could you, possibly not be quite so Catra at least while we rescue you?”

“I’ll try…” Catra said, languidly as she hopped up to sit onto the food cart.

Scorpia again seemed like she was building up to say something.

“Catra-“

“Listen, Scorpia-“ Catra began.

“No you listen!” Scorpia responded forcefully.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to shout,” she shot a quick side eye to the corner of the room again, “actually I’m not sorry. You hurt me Catra, all I wanted to do was help you and you made me feel really unimportant.

“Yeah, well I didn’t ask for your help did I?” Catra turned to face Scorpia through the barrier, her sharp glare meeting the taller woman’s determined resolve.

“You don’t need to ask for help Catra, and you don’t make people feel bad for giving it; when you care about someone-“

“When you care about someone you’re weak, and you never cared about me, no one ever did.”

“What are you talking about? Of course I cared about you! I always tried to make you happy.”

“You left me! You left me in the Horde just like everyone, to join the rebellion to fight  _ me.  _ You, Shadow Weaver, even…” Catra fell silent after her voice had risen to almost screaming. 

“Everyone I ever thought I cared about hurt me. They all leave.” She finished with a mutter.

“And you deserve to have them stay? No matter what you do? What about what they deserve Catra? What about what I deserve?”

“If you deserve so much more, then way are you here?”

“Because you don’t deserve to be tortured!” Scorpia looked into the corner of the room again before looking back.

“I still care about you Catra, and so does Adora, I truly believe there is good in you that you don’t let anyone see because you’re scared and I think that you should get the opportunity to let it out, and to find something which makes you happy.”

Catra sat in silence again, not meeting Scorpia’s eyes.

“We should probably get started now.” Bow remarked, looking down at his tracker pad.

“If this works… I hope you work out what you want Catra.” Scorpia said sadly. “And if it doesn’t… I’m sorry.”

“It’ll work.” Catra responded.

“You… you don’t even know the plan?” Bow said skeptically

“No.”

“Well… the confidence is appreciated.”

“You’re welcome… ‘nd I’m sorry.” She said the last part in a very low voice, since neither Bow nor Scorpia acknowledged it she couldn’t tell if she’d been heard, but that was all they were getting from her for now.

“Ok, let's do this.”

—————————-

“Your majesty!” A guard burst into the war room where a lone Glimmer was staring at a map of Etheria.

“Yes?”

“The prisoner has escaped!”

“What!?”

“Bow came out of the cell by himself, without Scorpia and whistling nonchalantly so we checked the room and neither Catra or Scorpia were there, from the window we could see Scorpia carrying the prisoner away from the castle.”

Glimmer's face was a mask of anger as she teleported into the cell room, the empty cell room, she couldn’t see anyone from the window now and she quickly teleported back to the war room.

“Get every single guard after them! Now! And send for Shadow Weaver!”

“Of course your majesty.”

Minutes later the guards of Brightmoon along with queen Glimmer were charging through the Whispering woods, Shadow Weavers shadow spies keeping them on the right track; clearly Scorpia didn’t know the Whispering woods, as the hunters were gaining on them.

Before long they burst through bushes into a glade which was illuminated by moonlight, surrounding the two figures silhouetted by the silvery reflection coming off of a pond in the centre of the clearing, one slender and one large and muscular.

“Stop!” Glimmer shouted in her most authoritative voice.

Suddenly the smaller figure pulled the larger one into a kiss which made Glimmer’s next words die on her lips.

“Oh, hi Glimmer!”

When she calmed slightly and allowed herself to actually look at the scene in front of her, Glimmer felt herself blush with embarrassment, her anger still there but slightly on the back burner.

Scorpia looked as surprised as she felt as Perfuma pulled her face away from the kiss.

“What are you doing out here?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed!
> 
> I wasn’t sure wether or not to have Catra apologise to Scorpia but it is very possible that this is going to go really bad for everyone involved, cause I don’t trust future me to not ignore my whole plan and then make this angsty as hell so we’re getting an apology ok?
> 
> Feedback is appreciated.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the wait.
> 
> I’m not too happy with this chapter but I’m posting it anyway.

“Ok,” Perfuma said as Scorpia dropped her from her shoulder, both of them looking towards the sounds of distant pursuit, “we’re here, this should be far enough right?”

“Yeah, Glimmer will never know that we were involved with the plot to free Catra!” Scorpia went white with terror before continuing “Oh no! What are we doing here? She’ll know we had something to do with the escape, why would two people go out to this clearing in the woods at night? Oh no, I’m gonna get kicked out of the rebellion! Everyone is going to think I’m working for the horde! Perfuma, what’re we gonna do!?”

“Scorpia. It’s going to be Ok, I’ve got a plan, don't worry about it.” Perfuma said, gently but firmly.

“What?”

The sounds of crashing through the undergrowth grew louder.

“Do you trust me?”

“Yessss?” Scorpia said nervously.

“Good.” Perfuma smiled reassuringly, before leaning up to wrap her arms around Scorpia’s neck and pull her into a tender kiss just as the guards burst through into the clearing.

Glimmer shouted something but Scorpia didn’t notice, she was completely absorbed with Perumas soft, perfect lips pressed against her own, then the shorter princess pulled away and the world rushed back into focus.

“Oh, hey Glimmer, what’re you doing out here?”

Scorpia just stood there in stunned silence.

—————————

“Ok, Perfuma you’ll sneak into the prison room in the food cart, we’ve bribed the kitchen staff to help; then Bow will get permission to escort Scorpia to see Catra, you can convince Glimmer right Bow?”

“I think so.” Bow nodded, he was always impressed by Adora’s intensity when it came to any type of planning or preparation.

“Good, then; you push the cart into the magical thingy, Catra hides in it while Perfuma uses her vines to get herself and Scorpia down from the balcony-“

“Why don’t I just vine up from the ground?” 

“Because we can’t take the chance that someone might see you outside before they’re supposed to. Then Bow you walk out the room seeming over innocent, the guards run in, see Catra’s missing, run to the balcony see Scorpia carrying someone, run and tell Glimmer who sends every guard after them which means I can leave here and go up to the cell, use She-ra to bust down the barrier, then simply rope down the side of the castle, send Catra on her way, then meet up with Perfuma and Scorpia, then Perfuma vines is up to my room and no one knows I ever left and Catra’s escape is put down to her own genius.” When Adora finally finished speaking she had to take several deep breaths.

“Got it?”

“Yep!” 

“I think so?”

“No…”

——————————

  
  


“What?... Wait, What?” Glimmer was rendered speechless by the sight in front of her, a madly grinning Perfuma and a blushing, equally gobsmacked Scorpia.

“I’m not sure what you’re asking about Glimmer?” Perfuma responded in a voice even sweeter than her customary tone.

“What’re you doing out here?” Was the first question which the Queen could string together from the mass of swirling thoughts in her head.

“Well I thought that was fairly obvious, right Scorpia?” 

“Yeah, Yep; very obvious to everyone and everyone knows what’s happening.” Scorpia blabbered.

“We came out here for some… privacy.” Perfuma emphasised the final word with a raised eyebrow.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know you two were… I’m so sorry!” It was Glimmer’s turn to fumble with her words as she and her guards stood awkwardly around the outside of the clearing.

“Wait, but they saw you carrying Catra and running away from the palace!” Glimmer recovered, reminding herself of tonight’s mission.

“Oh, that was me, Scorpia can get a little… excited.” Perfuma giggled.

“Then where’s Catra?” Glimmer said in horror.

“Wait, Catra's escaped?” Scorpia cut in, doing a fairly unconvincing attempt and genuine surprise, luckily Glimmer was too distracted to notice.

“I can’t teleport back to Brightmoon!” She shouted in frustration and confusion as she tried to vanish but ended up a foot or so away from where she stood.

“C’mon!” She shouted at her guards as she ran from the clearing, seemingly forgetting about the two princesses entirely. After a few moments the woods fell silent again leaving Perfuma and Scorpia in awkward quiet.

“I’m sorry about that, I shouldn’t have just sprung that on you, it was just the only thing I could think of.

“Oh, no,no, no, no! It was fine, well not the kiss, that was more than fine; not like more than fine but like, you were good at it? Argh! I’m sorry! It was fine that you kissed me.” Scorpia was about to keep rambling when she felt Perfuma’s hand on her pincer.

“We should probably go to the place where we‘re supposed to meet up with Adora and Bow.” She said with a smile, eyes sparkling with amusement watching Scorpia’s embarrassment.

“Yeah, that’s a good idea.”

—————————————

As soon as she heard the guards outside her room run off in response to a shouted order Adora burst through her door and was sprinting down the corridors to the cell, just hoping beyond hope that Glimmer had brought all the guards with her, and that Perfuma and Scorpia could lead them off long enough, and that they wouldn’t be arrested, and that Bow’s anti teleportation device worked to stop Glimmer immediately teleporting back from the whispering wood, and that Shadow Weaver would be too distracted to go to Catra’s cell herself, and that Catra wouldn’t try to kill her, and that she’d actually listen to them, and that she wouldn’t run into anyone else on her way to the cell and-

Ok so there was a lot which could go wrong to put it simply. All of which were running through Adora’s mind as she burst into the spare room, slamming the doors behind her as she did so.

“Everything’s going great, They all bought the Perfuma plan.” Bow said, not looking up from tinkering with a machine as Adora skidded to a halt in front of the magical field in which Catra sat on the cart looking equal parts confused and alarmed at Adora’s appearance.

“Hey, Adora” She said, the familiar expression lacking its customary tone which always made Adora’s chest tighten, it still did but less.

Adora ignored both of them as she raised her sword and transformed into She-ra, bright, colourful light filling the room.

“Do you have to do the whole fancy transformation sequence every time?” Catra asked, her usual cocky smirk returning slightly, before being dropped as Adora continued to ignore her, pointing the sword at the barrier, a beam appearing from the tip and hitting the purple field.

After a few seconds of silence Catra spoke up.

“Well?”

“I’m. Working. On. It.” Adora snapped back through gritted teeth.

“Sorry.”

More silence, then.

“Why are you doing this?”

“I promised didn’t I?” Adora deflected the question.

“And you’ve always been great at keeping those haven’t you princess? Why did you make the promise?”

“I just didn’t want Shadow Weaver hurting you Ok?”

“I don’t need your pity!” Catra snapped, Adora dropped the sword, beam dying away before she returned to her position.

“There’s a difference between pity and not wanting to let someone get tortured.”

“Yeah, pity doesn’t feed into your hero complex does it?” Adora dripped the sword again.

“We are literally trying to rescue you, will you just not be a brat this once!?”

“I didn’t ask you to save me!”

“Yeah, well it’s happening!” Adora almost shouted back, raising the sword again.

“So you get to play the hero again don’t you!”

“That’s got nothing to do with it, why are you acting like this!?” Catra fell silent and averted her eyes.

“Glimmers tryIng to teleport in, but this thing is working.” Bow cut through the tense silence.

A few moments later the purple barrier fell away.

“Ok, let’s get this over with, then you can get back to hating and trying to kill me.” Adora snapped at Catra, transforming back from her She-ra form, instead of some snarky answer Adora was surprised by Catra’s silence as the three of them ran to the door.

Adora opened them and poked her head out, to be met face to face with what she knew was one of Shadow Weaver’s shadow spies.

Slamming the doors again Adora silently cursed.

“What is it?” Bow asked worriedly.

“Shadow spy.”

“So she knows we’re here?”

“No. She knows I’m here, you two, go to the balcony and you should be able to use Perfuma’s vines to get down to the ground, Bow just follow the plan.”

“Of course.” Bow nodded, going over to the balcony but stopping when Catra didn’t move.

“What about you?”

“Like you care.”

“Adora, that’s not Sparkles, that’s Shadow Weaver; you think she’ll pull any punches to find out what happened?”

“No. You need to go. Now.”

“You want us to leave you with Shadow Weaver?”

“Why do you care!? I know you hate me!” Adora shouted, suddenly, the fear, stress and frustration overwhelming her.

“I don’t hate you!” The silence which followed Catra’s returning shout was deafening.

“Catra. I promised I’d get you out of this, please just go; I’ll be fine.”

“Don’t lie to me.”

“I’ll survive then. Please, not all of us have to get caught, just go!” Adora shoved Catra and that finally got her moving, she ran to the balcony and leapt over the side, without looking back.

“Good luck.” Bow said simply before following her.

A few moments later and the doors opened again, the towering figure of Shadow Weaver gliding in.

“Adora…” She drawled. “You have been getting up to mischief haven’t you?”

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed. Comments are, as always, appreciated.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so I have to apologise for a few things first.
> 
> Firstly, I’m sorry this is taking so long to update for these last chapters; I really appreciate your patience with me.
> 
> Secondly, I’m sorry that I’ve increased the number of chapters again; this is not the final chapter; sorry.

““What did you do?”

“Glimmer-“

“What. Did. You. Do?” The Queen cut off Adora with a growl, speaking through gritted teeth as she glared down at her friend who sat, with head bowed on a chair in the room used as a prison cell, encased in the purple cylinder of magic. Adora shook her head and shrugged.

“The guards left so I ran up here to see my… to see Catra, y’know; for the last time? Y’know because you were gonna let her abuser psychologically torture her into insanity and possible death?”

”So you’re telling me that you didn’t help her escape!?” Glimmers snapped.

“Yes, I helped her, the person who’s tried to kill me multiple times, to escape before letting her go and waiting around for everyone, who would already be suspicious of me, in her empty cell.” Adora still didn’t look up to meet her friend’s eyes; instead opting to inspect her hands.

“Then how did she escape?”

“How would I know? You arrested me, remember?” Adora cut back, bitterly.

“Adora, you know I couldn’t let you help her get away.” Glimmer’s harsh tone had an extremely faint note of pleading hidden deep inside it, although Adora didn’t notice.

“Well, looks like your security is so bad she didn’t need my help.” Adora answered with false cheer.

“Adora. She ra is the only person who could’ve broken through my magic; now tell me where she went.”

“Maybe your magic isn’t as good as you think it is?” 

“Adora, this ain’t a game!”

“You think I don’t know that!?” Adora stood to her full height, glaring directly into Glimmers steely eyes, the shorter girl taking an impulsive step back at the prisoner’s sudden movement.

“I had that explained to me, explained in very explicit detail by her.” Adora jabbed her finger towards the dark figure circling the room.

“By her years of abuse, her evil, manipulative mind tricks that sometimes still make me think I’m crazy! I know this isn’t a game Glimmer, because games of fair and for as long as I can remember I’ve known that life isn’t; but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to fight to make it fairer, and it doesn’t mean that I’m just going to let Her, hurt anyone else!”

Glimmer starred up into Adora’s fantastically intense eyes and saw all her anger,and determination but behind that was pain and sorrow, she held eye contact for a few moments before dropping her gaze and turning to the side, holding one arm in her hand. She opened her mouth to speak, to say what she didn’t know, but was preemptively cut off by Shadow Seaver, who she hadn’t noticed had moved so close to her.

“A pretty speech, but again your Majesty Adora, in her current, over emotional state, has overlooked the fact that none of this was to punish Catra, not to torture or harm; but to defeat the Horde, to save your people. Her infatuation with the enemy commander has clouded her judgement.”

“Infatuation!?” Both Adora and Glimmer shouted, the latter spinning around and facing her advisor, Adora looking like she might faint in surprise.

“Yes, it’s fairly obvious to the casual observer. You admitted earlier that Adora still cares for Catra; and that, indeed, is an explanation for why the Force Captain is still alive after fighting She ran so many times; but how else would you explain how many times Adora runs after Catra, ignoring her allies and the larger battle to face one opponent? How Adora will chase after Catra even into obvious traps? Why Adora still defends her after opening the portal? Why even now, she chooses Catra’s side over yours?” Glimmer was silent.

“Ok, I am not ‘on Catra’s side’ and I’m not defending her, I just don’t think we should let Her torture anybody.” Glimmer had slowly turned around to face Adora, her face unreadable.

“You’re in love with Catra.” She said it as though she was completing a puzzle in her mind, the final piece falling into place and making everything else clear.

“What!? Glimmer listen-“

“Say that you’re not in love with her.”

“I… I…”

“Say it!” Glimmer screamed, her facade breaking, sending a blast of magic from her hand to hit the wall behind Adora, causing the girl to gasp slightly.

“...”

“After everything she’s done? Done to you? To me?”

“I…” 

Glimmer's face was dark with what resembled disgust.

“Shadow Weaver, you can find Catra’s location from Adora’s mind, yes?”

“Of course your Majesty, it would be a pleasure.”

Glimmer turned and walked from the room, ignoring Adora’s pleading yells.

————————-

“So Arrow Boy,” Catra smirked in her customary mocking tone as she padded after him through the trees of the whispering woods, “The rebellion not doin’ it for ya anymore? You want to enlist in the horde? I have to warn you, you’ll have to start at the bottom; basically like Kyle’s Kyle-“

“Catra,” Bow said in an exhausted tone, “I’m a man on the edge here, Ok? My best friend is going to be tortured by my other best friend and the first best friend’s abusive mother figure and I can’t stop it, even as the mutual best friend, so just this once do you think you could maybe, just maybe shut up?”

Catra shot him an angry glare but fell silent, meaning that they walked with only the sounds of the Forest to accompany them until, a few minutes later Catra opened her mouth; surprising Bow with both her tone and what she said.

“You don’t think Sparkles’ll actually let Shadow Weaver mess around with Adora’s head?” If Bow didn’t know any better he could’ve sworn he heard some concern in Catra‘s voice. He did know better of course but still answered genuinely, if only for his benefit so that he could get his thoughts out in the open.

“I don’t know.” Admitting that made Bow’s stomach churn.

“I wish I could say she wouldn’t but since she became Queen Glimmer has changed, she’s… colder somehow? Not like, personally but she seems to remove herself from the decisions she makes.”

“So she’s evil?”

“No!” Bow snapped before taking a deep breath; he wasn’t going to let her get a rise out of him. 

“She’s making difficult decisions that will help everyone in Etheria.”

“But you disagree.”

“What? No I don’t!”

“You’re betraying her to help me.”

“Hey!” Bow stopped walking, spinning Catra to face him.

“I am not betraying Glimmer! Even if I did disagree with what she was going to do, then I wouldn’t help you escape!”

“Then what are we doing? Going for a moonlit walk before you take me back to my cell?”

“I am only doing this to help Adora! She would never forgive herself if she let that happen, and I would never forgive myself if I let Adora let something happen which made her never able to forgive herself.”

Again, for a few moments there was silence before Catra snorted and turned to keep walking.

“That hero complex of hers really is annoying isn’t it? Has to help everyone.”

“What?” Bow still hadn’t moved so Catra had to turn back to him.

“Hero complex? You know she thinks she needs to save everyone, even someone she hates?”

“Are you serious!?” Bow looked incredulous.

“What?”

“Adora doesn’t hate you, she cares about you; like a lot.”

Catra gave out her manic laugh, turning away and clutching herself.

“Yeah right, no one in the world cares about me.” She cackled.

“Why don’t you believe that Adora could still care about you!? Because it’s easier to hurt her when you lie and tell yourself she wants to hurt you as well!? Because it means you're ‘trapped’ in the horde and you don't have to choose to leave? Because you can do as much bad as you want and say you didn’t have a choice because Adora would accept you?”

“No!”

“Then why!?”

“Because no one could ever care for me after everything I’ve done; how could they!? How could… how could she!?”

“Because she’s in love with you!” The silence that followed allowed Bow to appreciate just how loud they had been screaming and he thanked luck that they had gotten this far away from Brightmoon before they had snapped.

After what felt like an eternity Bow signed and pointed down the path.

“It’s easy to find your path from here, just keep following this trail and you’ll come out on the other side of the woods.”

Catra just nodded and turned, pacing away.

“Wait!” Bow shouted.

Catra turned and had a piece of paper shoved into her hands.

“Adora wanted me to give this to you if the plan failed and she couldn’t get up to the cell, I suppose it comes to the same thing so… here.” With that he turned and started to jog back through the woods.

“What’re you going to do when you get back?” Catra called.

Bow shrugged.

“Get Scorpia and Perfuma, try to come up with a plan to save Adora.” Then he disappeared into the trees.

Looking down at the paper in her hands Catra unfolded it and read the words in silence.

“Catra,

If you’re reading this then I’m sorry, the plan failed and I couldn’t save you. Shadow Weaver is going to be there soon and it won’t be fun. I am so, so sorry for everything. 

I’m hoping against hope that you never have to read this Catra because if you are reading this then it means that we’ll never see each other again. And I can’t think about that,

A long time ago we promised that we’d look out for each other, we were talking about everything but specifically Shadow Weaver, and I don’t think I ever helped much with her, I can only imagine it got worse when I left and I'm so, so sorry that I wasn’t there to help you.

But this time I’m going to keep that promise, I’m not going to let Shadow Weaver hurt you again even if you don’t thank me, even if you try to kill me, even if you run straight back to the horde when we get you out I’m going to get you out.

Because I love you. I love you Catra Applesauce MeowMeow.”

Before she had even finished the last line Catra was running, running as fast as her legs could carry her after Bow’s slowly fading scent; running back to Brightmoon.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed and I hope it won’t be as long before the next chapter as it has been since the last one.
> 
> Feedback is greatly appreciated.
> 
> And I’m sorry for this getting angstier than I wanted it to


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m really really sorry for how long this is taking and how I keep adding chapters, thank you so much for your patience; I’m just having a hard time doing any writing right now and I’m just finding it quite difficult to complete this work.

“Catra!!” The high pitched wail of anguish cut through the air like a knife; as Adora screamed she leapt across the room in a frantic attempt to place herself in the way of Shadow Weaver’s red lightning which she was shooting into Catra’s rigid, frozen body.

“Adora!” Shadow Weaver admonished with venom, ceasing the bolts of electricity as the small child glared up at her with resolution, spreading her arms out, blocking Catra’s smaller frame with her own.

“You must  _ never  _ interfere with me disciplining your fellow recruits.”

“But it wasn’t Catra’s fault!” Adora protested, determination and pleading equal in her young voice, Catra herself had opened her eyelids which had been screwed tight in pain, her multi coloured eyes gazing up at the towering, masked woman with fear, before flicking to the blonde girl shielding her with a trace of hope, however she was still bound by shadowy tendrils.

“That soldier called me stupid, she was just trying to help me!”

“Adora, Catra must learn that there are consequences for her actions.” Shadow Weaver returned flatly; more shadowy projections grabbing a hold of the small Adora and dragging her towards the door of Shadow Weaver’s sanctum with the girl kicking and screaming the entire way.

“Do we have to sit through all of these?” Came Glimmer's tight voice as the scene faded away and she along with the present day Shadow Weaver found themselves back in Brightmoon, standing above a prone Adora whose eyes were rolled back in her head.

“ _ We _ do not have to do anything, however  _ I  _ must shift through many memories before I find the right one; Adora’s thoughts of Catra are all intertwined so if you insist on being here your majesty then yes you have to sit through all of these.”

“I do insist.” The Queen responded, her voice was tense; her eyes trained on where the young figure of Catra had been moments earlier, she had looked so scared.

Glimmer had returned to the chamber not long after giving Shadow Weaver permission to invade Adora’s mind. Leaving the woman alone with her felt wrong. Well all of it felt wrong of course but it was needed. It was. She had to do this, she had to do this to save Etheria.

Soon the Brightmoon prison cell dissolved again and Glimmer found herself faced with another scene.

This time they were in a room filled with bunk beds stretching across either wall with very little else inside. It was very dark to the point that Glimmer couldn’t see what she was supposed to be seeing; a stifled giggle and a ‘shhh’ drew her attention to the bed closest to the door; after allowing her eyes to adjust Glimmer could make out the figures of Catra and Adora again, maybe slightly older but still very young, huddled around one corner of the bed.

Moving closer Glimmer bent down and saw Adora using a small knife to finish off a very crude carving of Catra next to a completed one of herself.

“Hurry up Adora.” Catra hissed teasingly.

“Hey, it’s not like I have claws like you!” Adora protested grinning, nudging her friend with her shoulder playfully. Soon the second picture was finished and the girls looked at them grinning.

“One day, we’re going to have someone draw big huge pictures of both of us and they’re going to be behind our thrones and look really cool!” Adora exclaimed excitedly. The two girls fell into talking in hushed tones about their shared future for a while before Adora yawned hugely.

“Night Catra.” She said sleepily, pulling herself under the very thin covers.

“Night Adora.” Replied Catra; Glimmer expected her to climb up into the top bunk and was surprised when she crawled into a circle at the foot of Adora’s bed. Very similarly to how Adora had been curled up that first morning in Brightmoon. Now Adora’s unwillingness to sleep alone made a lot of sense.

Glimmer wondered why the memory was continuing to play, especially when Adora began snoring heavily; the. Catra opened her blue eye and stared up at Adora with suspicion for a minute or so before sliding up the bed and crawling underneath the blanket as well, nuzzling into Adora’s neck. It was a few moments later when Catra was clearly asleep that Adora’s eyes opened with a playful glint and she grinned at her friend's sleeping form before wrapping her arms around her and sinking back into the bed.

The room faded and they were back in Brightmoon for an instant before another memory started to play.

  
  


——————————-

Bow was out of breath as he crashed through the trees into the clearing which was very close to the edge of the whispering woods and had a view of the imposing castle of Brightmoon. 

“Bow!” Scorpia shouted, jumping away from Perfuma slightly, blushing madly, Perfuma not stepping away but leaning back slightly with a slight smile playing around her lips.

“We were just… uh … erm…”

“Wait, where’s Adora?” Perfuma said, taking in Bow’s anxious appearance.

“Shadow Weaver saw her, so she… she stayed behind so that Catra and I could escape.”

“So they’ve got Adora? You don’t think...?”

“I really don’t know and I say that we should assume that they will.”

“Yes, of course; it goes without saying that I’ll help, What about you Scorpia? I know you don’t really know Adora and you were just helping Catra escape.”

“Of course I’m in, but how are we going to break Adora out? It was a miracle that we got Catra out and Adora planned that.”

There was silence for a few moments as the three of them looked at each other.

“Do none of us have a plan?” Scorpia asked anxiously.

“I do.” 

They all turned and looked towards the source of the voice.

“Catra?”

“I’m going to help break Adora out.”

“But…” Bow began but he was cut off.

“I can’t leave her again, OK?

The three exchanged glances before nodding.

“Ok, what’s the plan?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed.
> 
> I honestly have no idea when the next chapter will be out or even if that will be the last chapter. Again, thank you so much for your patience everyone.
> 
> Comments are really appreciated.


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